August 26, 2008

XTERRA - The Bike

At long last I was able to get on my bike. And I had a lot of work to do to bring back the swim champs.

There isn't much to say about it. Nothing funny happened, no great stories to tell. It just rocked. The trail system the race follows has some of the best riding around and I am very familiar with it. Which means I knew that after about 20 minutes the doubletrack becomes singletrack and passing the swim champs becomes much more difficult.

So for that first 20 minutes. I. Drilled. It. As in 80-85% of my max heart rate. And it really didn't ever hurt. It felt great actually, and it shocked me a little because it isn't like I train anymore. I am lucky to ride twice a week.

I have no idea how many riders I passed but the number was high. I spent most of the trail off in the rocks and grass t0 get around people. Then came the singletrack and things ground right to a halt. Almost. It was very slow going. Riders would queue up behind slower riders and as the opportunity arose would pass. I must admit that people were pretty polite about being passed. I'm sorry if I pissed anyone off.

At the top of the climb, just above the lodge at Snowbasin, the trail split for the long course and short course. I was happy to be turning off instead of carrying on to the top of the mountain like last year.